Survey results: Rugby Bonus Point change
Last week we introduced an important change to the scoring for our rugby union, rugby league, Aussie Rules and American Football predictor games, starting with the Rugby Championship and Top 14. The pool Bonus Point now has a cap: if you are the closest in your pool, but more than 15 points away from the actual score margin, you no longer qualify for a Bonus Point.
For more detail on the reasoning, read our original article about the change.
What do you think of the Bonus Point Range Cap that we have recently introduced in Rugby?
From the 5,126 responses so far:
However, we're still mindful that some people don't like it, and 3% actually hate the change - we want everyone to love SuperBru, so we aren't just going to ignore that 8%.
Instead, we are looking into making this (and other rules) configurable on a per pool basis so each captain can decide on his or her particular pool rules. This will be part of a fresh site design, new app and other exciting changes coming for 2017.
In my pool, Steve had the biggest pick with ABs by 17. Previously he'd have scored 1 WP + 1 BP = 2 pts while the rest of us scored 1pt (except my father-in-law, who must have had finger trouble as he picked the Wallabies).
Sure, Steve's ABs by 17 was the closest in the pool. But then the Admiral had the ABs by 16. Was Steve's pick really worth double the score of the Admiral's? This question is at the heart of the change, especially as a lot of SuperBru players have raised this issue over the years.
We think we've struck a decent balance: we haven't ruined the ability to score a Bonus Point by having the biggest pick in your pool; we're just looking for a little more accuracy, and plenty of Bonus Points were won by players in the 19 - 49 range in the Aus v NZ game.
Let us know what you think of the results.
For more detail on the reasoning, read our original article about the change.
Survey results
As this was a fundamental change to a rule that had stood for over ten years, we were monitoring the reaction of the community carefully. A survey running this week has come back a very positive vote of confidence for the change:What do you think of the Bonus Point Range Cap that we have recently introduced in Rugby?
From the 5,126 responses so far:
- 37% Love it!
- 26% I quite like it.
- 22% I don't mind either way.
- 5% I don't really like it.
- 3% Hate it!
- 8% I don't know
However, we're still mindful that some people don't like it, and 3% actually hate the change - we want everyone to love SuperBru, so we aren't just going to ignore that 8%.
Instead, we are looking into making this (and other rules) configurable on a per pool basis so each captain can decide on his or her particular pool rules. This will be part of a fresh site design, new app and other exciting changes coming for 2017.
How did it go in the Rugby Championship?
Last weekend, the rule was tested immediately: in the first match, the All Blacks ran away to an unexpectedly big 34-point win over the Wallabies. With the cap in place, you had to have picked the ABs by between 19 and 49 to qualify for BP. This had the effect of denying the BP to players who had the biggest ABs pick in their pool but had only gone as high as the mid-teens.In my pool, Steve had the biggest pick with ABs by 17. Previously he'd have scored 1 WP + 1 BP = 2 pts while the rest of us scored 1pt (except my father-in-law, who must have had finger trouble as he picked the Wallabies).
Sure, Steve's ABs by 17 was the closest in the pool. But then the Admiral had the ABs by 16. Was Steve's pick really worth double the score of the Admiral's? This question is at the heart of the change, especially as a lot of SuperBru players have raised this issue over the years.
We think we've struck a decent balance: we haven't ruined the ability to score a Bonus Point by having the biggest pick in your pool; we're just looking for a little more accuracy, and plenty of Bonus Points were won by players in the 19 - 49 range in the Aus v NZ game.
Let us know what you think of the results.
Superbru on X
27 Aug 09:44
We want everyone to love SuperBru, which is why we will build something to cater for the 8% that do not like the BP cap.
27 Aug 07:16
The next version will allow the captain to configure the pool to the tastes of each particular pool. In all my own rugby pools, my fellow Bru's are overwhelmingly in favor of reducing the influence of the bonus point. 1 Sep 23:11
Would it would be fairer to award a DRAW prediction with 0.5pts for a result margin of 2 points either way? Anyway, with the way it works now, nobody ever predicts a draw in my SuperBru rugby pools. 1 Sep 23:33
That's how the scoring should work. If you're aware of any case contrary to that please do let us know and we'll investigate. 2 Sep 07:16
We have said we'll likely introduce a configurable option for 2017, and we certainly do listen to suggestions.
Let's see how this BP change actually affects things, because I do not believe it will have a huge impact.
Please drop us a line if you have any concerns.
Hutch 27 Aug 05:40
You may not like it, but jumping straight to some idiotic conspiracy theories is frankly irrational. 27 Aug 18:14
Love it! 5037 38.35%
I quite like it. 3395 25.85%
I don't mind either way. 2661 20.26%
I don't really like it. 606 4.61%
Hate it! 338 2.57%
I don't know 1097 8.35% 27 Aug 09:57
Besides that, and I say this with respect, anyone who achieved more than 26% for maths in school worked out a long time ago that it was an illogical rule. It’s just you and 8% of the other Bru’s that still don’t get it?
It’s very simple, pick the correct margin, it’s more fun that getting it wrong by 50 and still getting a BP.
I am not totally opposed to any changes but I do believe the BP had played an important role and added an interesting dimension over the last 10 years, and a lot of strategies had played out with the BP as an alley. Just to change it now, and without proper notice beforehand, just doesnt feel right to me.
And yes, I get that the numbers in favour of the change that you pointed out, is not necessarily supporting the status quo but I can tell you the players in my small pool of about 15 are all against the change. Why could my pool not play with the old rule if we wanted to, it doesn't influence you or the global leaderboards.
Furher, I suggested that they 28 Aug 13:51
We've spent many hours debating the BP structure internally and taking on board our user feedback over the years which directed the change of how the BP currently works. So it was certainly not just done on a whim.
After all the passionate feedback received (for both sides of the debate) on the initial BP change article we felt it would be appropriate to evaluate the general sentiment about the change. Hence why that was done retrospectively.
As stated by The General in the article above, we're certainly not discounting those users who don't seem to appreciate the revised BP system. All of our Brus are impo 28 Aug 17:20
We're not ignoring your preference to have a full BP in all matches irrespective of how accurate or inaccurate a pick was. I'll continue with what was meant to be the closing paragraph in my post above above...
As stated by The General in the article above, we're certainly not discounting those users who don't seem to appreciate the revised BP system. All of our Brus are important to us, and for that reason we're looking to accommodate everyone's preferences with more customization on the pool level. So in future you'll be able to edit your BP preferences and allow your pool to be run without a BP range cap. 29 Aug 06:46
More configurable pool settings is on our list of developments as The General has mentioned above. What exactly that will entail is still to be finalized. Obviously we don't want to cause too much user confusion between pools with different rules, so there's still a lot of consideration to be put into finding the right balance of configurable settings.
As for defaults, they can currently be disabled in an upgraded SuperPool for those pools preferring not to have defaults taken into consideration. 2 Sep 07:25
The beauty of SuperBru is the ease of use and understanding the scoring system. e.g. While you're watching a match it's easy to do a quick calculation and know you're within 5 points of the result as it stands so you'll be earning some MP. If you know what the rest of your pool has picked you'll know when you're on track for the BP. The BP cap makes that calculation a little trickier while factoring in the 15 point range, but it's still easy to calculate. A dynamic BP cap would be more vague and you wouldn't clearly know when you're actually on for the BP while watching a game. We think that would be more frustrating than it's worth as you wouldn't have the same sense of excitement knowing that NZ need to score just one more awesome try to get you the MP and BP. 2 Sep 07:53
That said, we could look at having configurable ranges within a pool at the captain's discretion. It's something worth considering. 2 Sep 08:13